Magic 8 Ball
by Heart Farmies
Summary: Olivia gets the answers to the questions plaguing her from an unlikely source. Slight Bolivia


**My first foray into the world of Fringe. Die hard Bolivia shipper, so expect some of that. Each chapter is named after (and uses) a phrase from a simple little kids toy given to our favorite blonde agent.**

**Spoilers for... Well a Magic 8 Ball and Peter saying those four wonderful, glorious words.**

**Own nothing related to Fringe. Or Magic 8 Balls, for that matter.**

**---**

A knocking on Olivia's office door woke her from the slight stupor she had fallen into. "Liv?" Charlie's voice was coming in muffled from the opposite side of the door, "Mind if I come in?" He didn't wait for a reply and pushed the door open, laughing at her slightly glazed over look. "I'm heading home now, and by the look of it... Damn, you need to, also."

She glared at him lightly and held up a file, "Can't. Need to get this on Broyles' desk by the morning." She directed the glare towards the papers, "I'm outta here after that."

Normally Charlie wouldn't have believed her, but in this instance he could see the absolute sincerity in her eyes. She was exhausted, pure and simple. These cases were taking a toll on her. "Okay, but if I come in tomorrow morning and find out that you didn't go home..." He left the joking threat hanging in the air and smiled, "Go home and tell your sister hi for me. G'Night, Liv."

"Night, Charlie." She rewarded him with a rare half smile and let her eyes fall back to the papers littering her desk. A growl came from her and she picked up her pen, hoping that one day maybe, just maybe, she'd get out of the office before at least one of her colleagues.

_Unlikely._ She thought. _Stupid pattern. Stupid Homeland Security and their vendettas. Can't I just experience one day of semi-normal FBI agentdom?_ A heavy sigh. _Also unlikely._

Shaking her head, she tried to clear all thoughts out of her mindthat didn't relate to their most recent case. It was no surprise that she was given the case with its extreme strangeness. Somehow people's extremities were turning into metal... Walter explained it to her and Astrid, but even with Peter's explanation of the explanation she still had no idea how on earth flesh could have morphed into copper or iron. She wasn't a scientist. She did the field work. This was not what she did. This was Walter's (and by association, Peter's) field.

Groaning loudly, Olivia let the pen drop to the desk, followed shortly by her head flopping down onto her arms.

Peter.

Just the thought of his name made her feel... Something she hadn't felt since, actually she didn't know when she had felt this. It was like a mixture of butterflies and awkwardness and... Well a general feeling of confusion. Okay, that last part may have come from the fact that half of the things said in the lab at Harvard were totally over her head. She didn't major in Fringe science. She didn't go to MIT. Simply put, she wasn't a genius.

But Peter made her feel _something_. And she didn't know what the hell it was. She didn't like not knowing. Call her slightly OCD, but she needed to be in control of every aspect of her life, and the younger Bishop wasn't allowing that.

With her mind not on the tight leash she generally kept it on, it felt free to wander to the moment that passed between the two of them a few weeks ago, just after she escaped from the warehouse.

"_Who cares about me." She wasn't important one at the time. The important ones were the ones who were being targeted. She was safe, she wasn't infected, she was fine._

_Peter, almost instantaneously, and with concern etched on his attractive face, retorted with, "I care about you."_

She quickly sat up, "Attractive? Where the hell did that come from? Peter's just my friend. Just my friend, I don't find him attractive in anyway."Reassured that it was juts a slip of the... Mind, she picked up the pen and returned to the neglected file.

Or at least tried to return to the file.

"I never had thoughts like that about John, did I?" Chewing on her lip, she resented the fact that even in death John was infiltrating her thoughts. Bastard. Traitor. _Lover_.

She really hated her thoughts sometimes.

But she didn't hate her niece and she smiled at the Magic 8 Ball that sitting on the edge of her desk keeping her collection of pens and pencils company. "Ah, what the hell, why not?" She stretched out and snatched it, turning it carefully, looking at it with a sense of nostalgia. She hadn't had one of these since she was a small child. Taking a few seconds to come up with a question she stared straight at the 8.

"Did I really love John Scott?"

Quickly she flipped it over and frowned at the answer.

_My sources say no_.

She knew that this was just a child's toy, and that the answer had nothing to do with real life, but she couldn't help but wish that it had given her an better answer. Who the hell were these sources?

The second knock of the night rapped on her door and, with a tired voice, said, "Come in." But at the sight of her visitor she smiled brightly.

Peter.

Ignoring the butterflies in her stomach and the odd feeling in the back of her head that something was different she cocked her head to the right and asked, "What're you doing here? It's," she paused to look at her watch, "well past midnight. Shouldn't you be with Walter?"

The disarming grin appeared on his face and he replied dryly, "One can only hear the periodic table alphabetized by the person who discovered it so many times. Besides, I had a feeling that you'd be working on the case and as much as it pains me to do this, because really, who would want to work on these cases more than they have to." He stopped, "Barring my father. I thought you might want some company."

Olivia looked at him gratefully, "Thank you. Maybe you can make sense of this... gibberish. Seeing as your father said most of it."

"Liv... My father is crazy. Half the time even I don't know what he's saying or doing." He grabbed a chair and pulled it in front of the desk, "Did you know that I found him in the lab one day putting LSD on caterpillars? And the sad thing is, it didn't surprise me."

Olivia held up a hand, "LSD is illegal. You really shouldn't tell me about these things." She pointed to the notes in the file, "These, however, I want you to tell me all about."

He laughed, the feeling in her head came back full force, and for once she thought of something other than the pattern, the plan, and that traitor, John Scott.

As he was reaching for the notes, he noticed the Magic 8 Ball and grabbed it instead. "I haven't seen one of these in... years." His face scrunched up, "Is Olivia going to leave the file alone and come with me to get some food?" He started to turn it but she stopped him with a hand on top of his.

"I think I can answer that. Definitely yes. And I want cheese steak."

A smile painted itself on his face as he helped her into her jacket. A twin smile made its way onto her face and she thought to herself, _You know, I think I actually may like that 8 Ball. _

**---**

**Review please? I honestly have no clue how this went... But thanks for giving it a read.**


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